6 ms·
As I understand it, it is just like in Opera. So a proxy not a VPN. I honestly find it distasteful that they may call it a VPN without it actually being one.
by looopTools 6mo ago
As I understand it, it is just like in Opera. So a proxy not a VPN. I honestly find it distasteful that they may call it a VPN without it actually being one.
- dyauspitr 6mo agoIs the proxy encrypted? If so then you might as well call it a VPN.
- m132 6mo agoWhat makes a proxy a "VPN" again? Most popular "VPN" companies only offer a proxy that merely runs over a VPN protocol.
- nl 6mo ago> Most popular "VPN" companies only offer a proxy that merely runs over a VPN protocol. Well that doesn't seem true? Mullvad, Proton, Private Internet Access, NordVPN, ExpressVPN etc are all VPNs. You can use them for whatever protocol you want.
- tobz1000 6mo agoAll of them offer only proxied access to the internet. They do not expose access to any "private network".
- DaSHacka 6mo agoDepends on the VPN, I remember Nord had a private p2p network that allowed users of their VPN service to communicate directly with each other without exposing their p2p services to the greater internet. Granted, its been a lomg time since I used Nord, not sure if they still offer that service.
- ShowalkKama 6mo ago> You can use them for whatever protocol you want. the two most commons protocols used for proxying traffic support arbitrary tcp traffic. socks is quite self explanatory but http is not limited to https either! Of course most providers might block non https traffic by doing DPI or (more realistically) refusing to proxy ports other than 80/443 but nothing is inherent to the protocol. edit: this is also mentioned on MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/Methods/CONNECT https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/... > Aside from enabling secure access to websites behind proxies, a HTTP tunnel provides a way to allow traffic that would otherwise be restricted (SSH or FTP) over the HTTP(S) protocol. > If you are running a proxy that supports CONNECT, restrict its use to a set of known ports or a configurable list of safe request targets > A loosely-configured proxy may be abused to forward traffic such as SMTP to relay spam email, for example.
- m132 6mo agoTo complement your comment, SOCKS 5 also supports two, less known kinds of traffic: UDP and the server side of TCP https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1928#page-6 https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1928#page-6
- Gormo 6mo agoWell, only some of them actually offer full VPN service. Most of them are still just traffic-forwarding proxies, just not limited to HTTP. NordVPN used to offer full VPN service under the name "Meshnet", but actually discontinued it last year.
- snowwalker222 6mo ago[dead]
- ranger_danger 6mo agoIMO if it requires a new network interface to be created on the machine, then it's a VPN. But an application-level tunnel (such as SOCKS) would just be a proxy.
- 7bit 6mo agoBecause people understand VPN but not necessarily proxy. It's targeted to non-tech people.
- gzread 6mo agoA VPN as you refer to it isn't a VPN either. There's no private network that is virtualized. Actual VPN software is like Tailscale.
- whalesalad 6mo agoFrom the perspective of the browser there is no difference.